Hero

This is total fucking bullshit, man. An 18-year-old kid who nicked an abandoned school bus to drive stranded victims of Katrina to Houston is being referred to as a thief and may face charges for stealing the bus. And note how the story lede refers to his actions as “an extreme act of looting.” Fuck you, assholes.

Thousands of refugees of Hurricane Katrina were transported to the Astrodome in Houston this week. In an extreme act of looting, one group actually stole a bus to escape ravaged areas in Louisiana.

About 100 people packed into the stolen bus. They were the first to enter the Houston Astrodome, but they weren't exactly welcomed.

The big yellow school bus wasn't expected or approved to pass through the stadium's gates. Randy Nathan, who was on the bus, said they were desperate to get out of town.

"If it weren’t for him right there," he said, "we'd still be in New Orleans underwater. He got the bus for us."

Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson jumped aboard the bus as it sat abandoned on a street in New Orleans and took control.

"I just took the bus and drove all the way here...seven hours straight,' Gibson admitted. "I hadn't ever drove a bus."

The teen packed it full of complete strangers and drove to Houston. He beat thousands of evacuees slated to arrive there.

[…]

Authorities eventually allowed the renegade passengers inside the dome. But the 18-year-old who ensured their safety could find himself in a world of trouble for stealing the school bus.

"I don’t care if I get blamed for it ," Gibson said, "as long as I saved my people."

Jabbor Gibson is a fucking hero. He had the presence of mind to find transportation and sort out how to drive it and the generosity to take people with him on his way out of the apocalypse; punishing him would be an exercise in such scumbaggery as to warrant its own circle of hell.

As Pam notes, “[H]e saved lives, and showed leadership in the midst of chaos, something sorely lacking in the clowns running this disaster relief effort.” No kidding.

And Charlie at Shades of Grey has a related thought, based on FEMA Director Michael Brown’s asinine comment that New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.

Let’s say a family did just up and leave. What now? Do you suppose the Astrodome is taking just anybody who shows up at the door and says, Hey, I was in New Orleans last Saturday, but now I don’t have a home? Or do you think that they’re probably only taking the people who come from officially sanctioned channels?

Looks like Charlie’s right. Because they weren’t expected, the “renegade passengers” were denied entry until they eventually convinced authorities to let them in.

And how on earth are people who take responsibility for their own fates, as Brown suggested they’d need to do, renegades?

I guess that’s the same kind of circular logic that allows Bush’s supporters to defend the length of time it’s taken to get people evacuated because “no one saw it coming,” but also condemn the people who didn’t leave because “they knew it was coming.”